Whenever I talk to association boards about AI, the same concern pops up:
“What if staff accidentally upload confidential documents into ChatGPT?”
It’s a valid question — but let’s pause.
Because the bigger monster under the bed might not be ChatGPT at all.
It might be email.
research, decision-making, and industry knowledge, the visibility and credibility of associations depend heavily on the information they publish online.
When Email Goes Wrong
We’ve all seen it happen:
- A confidential paper sent to the wrong government contact.
- A sensitive file forwarded to the media by mistake.
- A reply-all that never should have been sent.
Once that email leaves your inbox, it’s gone.
You can’t pull it back.
And you’ve just had an external leak — the information is now outside your organisation’s walls.
When ChatGPT Team Goes Wrong
Now let’s look at ChatGPT Team (the secure, business version).
If staff accidentally upload a sensitive file here:
- It stays inside your private organisational workspace.
- The data is not used to train AI models.
- The only people who might see it are your own authorised staff.
- Admins can restrict or delete it.
That’s not an external leak.
That’s an internal visibility risk — more like putting a file in the wrong folder on your shared drive.
The Real Comparison
- Email accident = outside your organisation, uncontrollable, irreversible.
- ChatGPT Team accident = inside your organisation, controllable, auditable.
Both require good governance. But only one puts your secrets at risk of leaving the building.
The Key Takeaway for Associations
The real monster under the bed isn’t ChatGPT.
It’s still email.
The opportunity for associations is to stop seeing AI as a threat, and start using it — safely — to speed up policy work, member communications, and everyday productivity.
✅ At Evan Tech, we help associations introduce AI responsibly — with the right tools, training, and policies in place.
Because the future will ask AI about your industry.
Let’s make sure it gets the right answer.
